Action of the Police Commissioners, on Sunday Laws
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ACTION OF THE POLICE COMMISSIONERS, ON SUNDAY LAWS.
The Board of M. P. Commissioners had a meeting yesterday in N.Y. and occupied most of their time in a discussion about Sunday laws. A long memorial was presented from the "great gentlemen" and capitalists of the city, the sole burden of which is, a demand that the authorities shall use the strong arm of power, to arrest, imprison, fine, and punish generally, all the little boys that makes a part of their living by selling and crying out newspapers on Sunday!
We confess we think this very, very small business for a hundred and twenty of the standard men of New York to engage in. Out of the myriad of claims upon their attention, in a legitimate sphere, they turn aside from all the rest, and pick out the petty and miserable item of boys selling newspapers on Sunday!
At the meeting yesterday, Gen. Nye inquired whether there was any law against the evil complained of.1 Mayor Tiemann said there was a general law against doing anything to disturb religious services on Sunday.2 Mr. Bowen said that there was a law of the State prohibiting the sale of anything except meats and fish after 9 A. M. on Sundays. Gen. Nye was not aware that there was any such statute law. Mr. Bowen read from the Revised Statutes, section 71, in support of his assertion. It was the duty of the Board, he said, to carry all the laws of the State into effect. Here was a statute; should it be enforced?
Gen. Nye said there were a great many obsolete laws which they were not expected to enforce. There was one against travelling on Sunday, except to and from church; no one could think of enforcing that.
Mr. Bowen offered the following resolution:
Resolved, That the General Superintendent be directed to carry the law forbidding the sale of wares and merchandise on Sunday into effect.
Mayor Powell moved, as a substitute, that the General Superintendent be directed to prevent the crying of newspapers on Sunday.3 The substitute was adopted. The Board refused to lay Mr. Bowen's resolution on the table, and adopted that also.
So if this action be persevered in, we shall have another attempt made to compel the great body of the people to obey not their own common sense views of "Sunday Observance," but the blue-law dictates of the strictest of the Sabbatarians. We predict that if this attempt be persisted in by the Commissioners, it will create in Brooklyn and New York a stronger reaction than ever, both against the Metropolitan Police Law, and the parties and politicians with it.4
Notes:
1. James W. Nye (1815–1876) was the president of the newly founded Metropolitan Board of Police from 1857 to 1860. He was later appointed as governor of the Nevada Territory by Abraham Lincoln and served as a U.S. senator. [back]
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3. Samuel S. Powell (1815–1879) served as mayor of Brooklyn from 1857 to 1861, and then again from 1872 to 1873. In 1863, he was nominated to become water commissioner by a previous mayor of Brooklyn, Colonel Alfred M. Wood, but was denied confirmation by the Board of Aldermen. Thomas Jefferson Whitman mentioned Powell's nomination in a December 1863 letter to Walt. [back]
4. The Metropolitan Police Act of April 1857 was passed by the New York State Legislature in order to dissolve New York City's Municipal Police and replace them with the State-controlled Metropolitan force, overseen by a board of commissioners. This new force covered the combined areas of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Staten Island, and Westchester County and was considered controversial in scope, with some parties arguing that the Act was unconstitutional. Embedded within the Act was a series of provisions that impacted both the sale of and access to alcohol. [back]